This invention relates to anchor guides for boats, and more particularly to apparatus for assisting the boat owner in retrieving and lifting an anchor onto a boat and for holding the anchor in place onboard the boat.
In the past, anchor guides have been provided for assisting a boat owner in retrieving and lifting an anchor onboard a boat. Such anchor guides are shown, for example, in the following patents:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Patentee ______________________________________ 3,242,894 Anderson 3,509,847 Persinger 3,577,951 Smith 3,635,187 Webb 3,675,608 Webb ______________________________________
The present invention provides an improvement over the anchor guides disclosed in these patents.
Prior art anchor guides have a number of disadvantages. Many prior art anchor guides are complicated and too expensive, especially for the small boat owner. Some hinged anchor guides have a tube for receiving the shank of an anchor. The tube is hinged to the boat and the tube can pivot to lift the anchor onboard the boat. Some hinged anchor guides require a substantial amount of leverage to rotate the tube about its axis to lift a heavy anchor onboard the boat.
Small boat owners who use their boat for fishing often have more than one anchor, and they frequently pull in their anchors in order to move the boat from time to time. A large amount of leverage required to lift a heavy anchor, especially at the end of a hinged tube, can be tiring to the boat owner. In some instances a power winch is even needed to assist pivoting the tube and anchor about the hinge axis.
Anchor guides having a hinged tube often are designed such that the tube can hang in a generally vertical position when the boat is anchored. When the anchor line is initially pulled through the tube, the pull on the line can cause the bottom of the tube to kick away from the boat into an angular position which makes it difficult to pull the shank of the anchor into the tube. Often the top of the anchor shaft will catch on the bottom of the tube.
Some prior art anchor guides also have a roller over which the anchor line passes. In many instances such anchor guides cannot be used with a chain-type anchor line, because the links of the chain can catch on the roller.
The present invention provides an anchor guide which substantially reduces the complexity and cost of manufacturing an anchor guide when compared with prior art anchor guides. The present anchor guide also eliminates the deficiencies characteristic of prior art anchor guides described above.